Reading Time: 5 minutes Doing chores on a mixed farm in South Australia, Josh Lade dreamed of working on a really big grain farm. It was a dream that intensified as he was growing up, like when he used to put in shifts on the large inland grain operation owned by members of his mother’s side of the family. […] Read more
Fighting weed resistance head on
Fighting weed resistance will be a long, tough battle, but the latest information says farmers are definitely paying attention
Has the price of farmland flatlined?
It may seem like the life has gone out of land markets, but don’t call the morgue just yet
Reading Time: 6 minutes If you get most farmers and landowners to talk about it candidly, most will admit to being a bit awestruck by just how far and how fast land prices have risen. Simon Ellis, a young fourth-generation farmer from near Wawanesa, Man., says he and his neighbours have watched over the past decade as land prices […] Read more
Are specialty crops poised to surge in Western Canada?
For a few years specialty crops were a tough sell to Prairie farmers. Now with lower grain prices, there’s a renaissance in interest
Reading Time: 5 minutes High grain prices send a very clear signal. Basically, it amounts to “get in while the getting’s good.” Nobody knows how long those high prices will last, and everyone is loathe to leave dollars on the table. In the field, it means a lot of inputs and crop protection products get applied where they might […] Read more
Reading the basis
Of all the signals the market is always sending you, the clearest can be the basis. Here’s how to put that to better use in your farm’s 2015 marketing strategy
Reading Time: 7 minutes If there’s a market signal farmers obsess over, it’s the basis. Not only can it make the difference between profitability and red ink, it’s also set by your local grain buyers, so theoretically it’s the signal you should hear the loudest. But is the basis really well understood? Is it ever entirely clear why it’s […] Read more
Are Canadian farmers ready for a food fight?
Your business could soon be caught up in a public relations battle. Based on what we’re seeing south of the border, are you ready?
Reading Time: 9 minutes A tsunami seems set to wash over Canadian agriculture. No, the seas haven’t suddenly shifted inland. This dangerous wave is made up of public sentiment about the way you conduct your business. Just like a tsunami, you might not like it, you probably won’t welcome it, but trying to resist it is going to be […] Read more
Options in a bear grain market
If you’ve been leery of high-quality put options, Errol Anderson wants to change your mind
Reading Time: 8 minutes We’ve all seen it. Grain markets can take on narratives that uncouple them from the basics of supply and demand. A bull market can charge forward, horns thrust in the air, and it can generate a level of excitement and pricing that sellers love, but privately marvel at. It’s heady, it’s optimistic, it’s confident, and […] Read more
Precision variability in agriculture
For precision ag, the headline grabber is nitrogen. But how exactly the technology will improve N efficiency is still up in the air
Reading Time: 7 minutes When it comes to precision agriculture on the Prairies, all eyes are on nitrogen efficiency. It makes sense, after all. Nitrogen is an expensive input that seems to all too conveniently track the price of grain, at least on an upward trajectory. And after grain prices fall, nitrogen prices seem mysteriously to be a bit […] Read more
Getting your crop marketing plan down on paper, and beyond
Why put your marketing plan on paper? Because it pays, no matter where the market goes
Reading Time: 9 minutes A military phrase jumps immediately to mind. Veteran soldiers often say that no battle plan ever survives its first brush with the enemy. On the farm, you might think it means that the time you’d put into laying out a marketing plan is time you could better spend on any of the thousand other things […] Read more
A taste for fababeans
Will new zero-tannin varieties mean fababeans finally take off? Margot and Theo Thirsk hope so
Reading Time: 4 minutes Sitting in her kitchen last summer, watching a massive thunderstorm pass through on an early July evening, Margot Thirsk knew exactly why she likes fababeans better than field peas. She and husband Theo have grown both on their operation near the community of Kelsey, about 80 miles southeast of Edmonton, with the 2014 season marking […] Read more
Quality issues with some wheat crops, but it’s not all bad
With 2014 in the bin, there may be pricing opportunities as the trade turns to blending to hit grade specs
Reading Time: 5 minutes Just over a year ago, Bruce Burnett, the Canadian Wheat Board’s head of weather and crop research, stood in front of the 2014 Cereals North America conference and spun the unlikely tale of a late harvest that delivered a large and high-quality crop. Rolling the clock forward to this fall, Burnett again took the podium, […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
